Learn to sell and build, embrace accountability and be willing to bleed everyday.

If you understand them, then you have the basis for understanding the scientific method. Once you understand the scientific method, you can understand how to separate truth from falsehood in other fields and things you’re reading.

It’s better to go through a book really slowly and struggle and stumble and rewind than it is to fly through it quickly.

To lay a foundation for learning, you need two things. Persuasion and programming.

If you’re good with computers, good at basic mathematics, good at writing, good at speaking, and if you like reading, you’re set for life.

Some of the things taught in business school are just anecdotes (case studies). They’re trying to help you pattern match by throwing lots of data points at you, but the reality is, you will never understand them fully until you’re actually in that position yourself. 

Doing is faster than watching, so you’re going to learn a lot more about running a business by operating your own.

The number of ‘doing’ iterations drives the learning curve. the more iterations you can have, the more shots on goal you can have, the faster you’re going to learn. It’s not just about the hours put in.

And doing something new the first time is painful because you’re wandering into an uncertain territory and high odds are that you will fail. So you just have to get very, very comfortable with frequent small failures.

Nassim Taleb made his fortune, his wealth by being a trader who basically relied upon black swans, by losing little bits of money every day then once in a blue moon he would make a lot.

We’re evolved for small victories all the time but that becomes very expensive.

Entrepreneurs bleed every day they’re constantly losing, but when they win they win big.

Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.

if you look at a Kanye or Elon or anyone like that, these people can get rich just off their name.

A well-functioning team has clear accountability for each position.

It is really important because when something succeeds or fails if it fails, everybody points fingers at each other, and if it succeeds, everybody steps forward to take credit.

When you put your name out there, you take a risk with certain things. You also get to reap the rewards and benefits.

When you’re negotiating with other people, ultimately if someone else is making a decision about how to compensate you, that decision will be based on how replaceable you are. If you have high accountability, that makes you less replaceable.

If you look at the hierarchy of capital in a company, the employees get paid first. The equity holders get paid last and take on greater risk but in exchange, they get the nearly unlimited upside.

When every member of a team can take on accountability for their portion you get a well-functioning team.